genius

I know every parent thinks their kid is a genius, but we were talking last night about what's going to happen with Zack in the coming months and years. When Zack started kindergarten, he was already reading on almost a second grade level. They have done a wonderful job accommodating him by letting him go to a first grade class for reading time. They tried to do the same with math time, but the schedule wasn't working out for it. If he was just a little more mature, I would have considered skipping kindergarten.

Yesterday, Zack's teacher called me. Whenever I see "Wake County Pub" on my caller ID, I get apprehensive because we've had some not so good calls from the school more than a few times this year. So here's what Mrs. W. had to say: Earlier in the year, we talked about Zack's above-grade level performance, but she didn't feel like he was so far beyond that he was getting bored. She is seeing that now, that he already knows just about everything they are doing in class. With the schedule not working out for letting Zack go to first grade for writing and math, they decided to let Zack go to first grade for the entire day! We're going to try this out for a couple weeks to see how it goes.

The other thing they are going to do is have Zack tested for AG (academically gifted). We had talked about this in November, but Mrs. W. is seeing more of a need for it now. They usually don't test for AG until 3rd grade, so this is really something! If the things he does in first grade seem too easy at all, she also said we could use the end of first grade assessments and go from there, seeing if he needs to work with the AG teacher.

Even though I haven't been 100% pleased with Zack's school, I have to hand it to his teacher! I know from experience that one of the hardest things is to challenge and accommodate those students that are performing above grade level. She has really gone above and beyond my expectations for what they could do with Zack. I really appreciate all she has done for him!

I'm really praying that this will help Zack, academically, behaviorally and socially. Knowing what the other students are learning has left too much time for Zack to be silly and get in trouble, and he's had a lot of difficulty making friends. His words a couple weeks ago of "I just don't want to be bored anymore" have really stuck with me, too. Please pray that things will get better for Zack!